Neon
Izzy Epsilon is a waitress who works at Superbabes - a theme restaurant located in Gotham City. Neon is a new and relatively novice superhero. She was kidnapped by A.I.M. and escaped a couple of years later... but not before they replaced her arms and legs with robotic versions instead. Background The Early Years Izzy grew up in Gotham City - a city full of sunshine and happy thoughts. ... Okay, not really. Gotham was, and still is, generally dark and grim. But for Izzy, it was still home, and as happy as life could be in Gotham. She grew up in a happy family that tried to shield her from the dangers of their city. Her mother was a nurse and her father owned a small hardware store. She had a handful of friends who she was close to and did pretty well in school. And then, when she was 12, she discovered that she was not normal. It first happened when she passed a 'Open' sign on a store window. Without trying, Izzy essentially 'sucked up the neon gas from the sign itself. Understandably, this freaked her out and she ran home. Then, a few days later, she discovered she could make neon fire of from her fingertips. This was less scary than sucking up neon from a sign. In fact, she thought this was a neat thing ... and soon she was running around with sparkles coming from fingers for weeks, much to the concern of her family, who kept making sure she'd hide her abberation when she was in public. Her family was worried about these changes in their daughter and finally, the concern about letting people see what their daughter was able to do was surpassed by worry about their daughter's health, and they took her to a doctor. After a barrage of tests, it was determined that Izzy had a genetic abberation that allowed her to control certain elements - notably neon gas. In other words, she had metahuman abilities. This was not a particularly good thing, and her family was worried about the idea of people finding out that their daughter was a 'freak'... but Izzy seemed happy enough, her protective parents' shielding of the harshness of the world having been too effective. A.I.M. Then the merging of worlds came. Izzy managed to remain under the radar as best as her parents could get her to. It was difficult, since their daughter didn't understand how dangerous it could be if it was aware that a person had powers. Not just in Gotham but in the rest of the world as well. Then, one year later, a man came to Izzy's home and told her family that he has started a school for metahuman, similar to the more publicized school in the news that was for mutants. To teach them to use there powers to benefit humanity for the good. Izzy's normally oveprotective parents had heard of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, and thought that this school would be similar, but for metahumans. That maybe it would show her how to control her powers and not flash them around so she would not be seen as a freak. Even though they loved her, powers or no powers, they understood the reason people in Gotham were wary about metahumans. So, after talking it over with Izzy, they agreed to send her to the school. Unfortunately, it was all a lie. There was no 'metahuman school.' The man was a member of a villainous science agency known as 'A.I.M.' And Izzy found herself not in a school learning to use her powers for the good of mankind, like the Justice League or the Avengers, but instead she was imprisoned in a secret A.I.M. lab with other metas that the organization had tricked. They experimented on Izzy, attempting to understand the metagene. They understood the basics of mutants and mutates, but metahumans were slightly different... and possibly recreatable in theory. The experiments managed to make her powers slightly stronger, but AIM scientists had not been able to figure out how to recreate them in others. Apparently, with metahumans, metahuman abilities were far more varied in origin than a single gene, like in mutants. This made Izzy useless as a template for AIM supersoldiers... but she would still have use as a living weapon for sale to the highest bidder. They used a small amount of their cybernetic technology which they'd used in other experiments fail to master how to recreated it. In the end they decide to turn her into a weapon and sell her off to the highest bidder, while they concentrated experiments on recreating powers on other metahuman test subjects instead. To that end, they removed her arms and legs, replacing them with robotic arms and legs, so she would be a better weapon. The Escape She was kept in the A.I.M. base for years, trapped behind bars and treated like a lab rat. Then one day, the tests ended... and she taken to a lab and forcedi nto a chair in front of a screen. In order to be sold as a living weapon, her body had been prepared, but now her mind would have to be. The screen was to be the instrument of a new brainwashing technique. As she started to be strapped down in the chair, the whole base suddenly shook, knocking the A.I.M. men in the room to the ground. She used this moment to escape. It wasn't an easy escape, as the building kept shaking from some sort of external attack, explosions happening regularly. She discovered the cause of the attack when she got outside. She saw him - a man with a red cape and golden hair flying in the sky. Almost like a flamboyantly dressed viking warrior. He was holding a hammer and shooting lighting at the A.I.M. Agents. For a few moments, she just stood there in awe. But the debris falling down all over the place shook her out of it, and she realized she HAD to get out of there. And escape she did, found a phone, and anonymously called the police, hiding when they arrived. When the police (or maybe SHIELD) later had arrived at the building to investigate, the base was empty. The blonde-haired man was not there either. She never found out of the other metahumans got away during the attack like she did. Returning Home Eventually, she came out when the police investigated, and she was promptly taken in and detained, given her obvious cybernetic arms and legs. A few days later after investigations were made and statements were taken, they confirmed her identity, that she was not some sort of AIM criminal, and her family was contacted. She was reunited with her mother and father - lots of hugging and crying - and they brought her home. Back home to Gotham. For weeks, and then for months, Izzy was different than the vibrant and happy kid she was before AIM. She would mope around the house, depressed and unsure of herself, stuck in the past and reliving the experiments put upon her during her imprisonment. Her behavior started changing more and more, and one day ... in a moment crazy moment, she cut and dyed her hair. Maybe trying to separate herself from who she was before AIM messed with her life. She tried to change both her appearance and her attitude as much as possible. Instead of being a timid but cheerful girl, she tried to be a 'badass punk lifestyle woman.' It was as far from what she used to be as she could think of. She got a job as a waitress of a restaurant called Superbabes. She used her money for piercings and new clothing to tipify her newly acquired punk lifestyle attitude. When not working, she put up artwork on buildings, truck, signs, and more. No longer being protected from the realities of life, she saw how bad Gotham could be... and even started wandering the street looking for trouble. She had always heard stories about the Batman, but her sheltered life as a child had kept her from ever trying to find out more. When she heard more and more about the Batman myths, she started to want to actually SEE him. In person. Or in... whatever he was. That was the real reason she was looking for trouble - not to stop it, but to actually see the Batman in action. And not to fight him. Not even to 'join' him. She wanted to see him because Batman was the protector of Gotham. He was the beacon of safety in the night. And she wanted to feel safe again. And who else could do that more than the Batman? The Wandering Neon spent a year wandering the city, looking for trouble, all in the hopes of spotting the mythical Batman... but quickly discovered that she lacked the skills to do so safely, let alone to be a crime-fighter. Within the first month of 'trouble-seeking' she had far too many close calls with various rough people and groups. If it wasn't for her powers and cybernetic augmentations, she probably wouldn't have survived that first month for so many stupid reasons. She realized that if she was going to ever find the Batman, let alone survive her new lifestyle of 'trouble-making, crime-fighting punk life,' she was going to need to learn some basics. Like which parts of town were for which gangs. Given her upbringing, it wasn't something that she would naturally know, but eventually, mostly from fellow graffiti artists, she started to at least understand the tags for different gangs and what they meant. And she took that information, wrote it in a notebook, and marked the areas on a map so she could understand the basics of which areas were for which gangs. She also may have handed out some money to different gang members that came to 'Superbabes' - and a little flirting didn't hurt either. Within a year, she had passable streetwise knowledge of the basics of the gangs, and even a little information on some of the organized crime families that operated in Gotham. Also, while her cybernetics did give her an advantage in a fight, she still didn't have even the basics on how to throw a punch, let alone fighting styles. But she was also impatient, wanting to find the Batman - she wanted to feel safe in Gotham in ways that amounted to more than just knowing the mythos of Gotham's protector. She wanted to actually see him. Taking classes on how to fight? That was a problem, especially with the noticeable cybernetics that might freak people out. Instead, the internet was her friend. Online videos and training manuals on basic quick-and-dirty ways to take down an attacker. At least ones that might work on a normal, untrained person. It was all self-taught of course, a clothing dummy she found in an alley behind a defunct clothing store being her training target. So now, if she was attacked by crash test dummies, she could throat punch them, bite them, and kick them between the legs like a pro. Then there was the problem of how conspicuous she was. Punk lifestyle might be 'street'... but it wasn't exactly stealthy, despite her trying to sneak around. And while she might 'stand out' in a crowd, she did find one thing out from her attempts at being stealthy - that the padding of her cybernetic feet did tend to muffle her footsteps better than a typical person. That could help. Lastly, she realized that, according to all the stories, Batman would often descend from the rooftops, so she realized she was going to need to learn how to move across rooftops as well. After months of 'How To Parkour' DVDs and mimicking the movements, she was doing parkour stunts and moves which usually took years to master. Izzy found herself able to do them in just under a year, thanks to her robotic limbs. Her self-taught training done, she was now ready to take to the street and try to find The Batman. Personality *Independent Izzy is a strong woman who values her freedom and her independence. She does not want to be part of a group or a couple in order to feel strong and safe, although she does crave a symbol to look up to for this (ie, Batman). In fact, she would find it hard to live under someone else's rules, especially after her years of captivity. *Flashy Izzy enjoys standing out of from the crowd. She normally dresses in clothing that would not be called 'appropriate' for public - usually with a punk lifestyle chic. She also has many piercings and wildly colored hair. *Scared Izzy was kidnapped, experimented on, and had her body augmented against her will. While she accepted the changes made to her body, it's still a reminder of those experiences, and memories of how she got her augmentations still haunt her - both while she dreams and while awake. These fears might be crippling if and when she faces those who did it to her - ie, A.I.M. If she sees the men in the yellow suits or MODOK, she would likely end up shutting down and curling up in a ball. *Angry Despite her fears, she wants revenge on those who kidnapped and harmed her. She sometimes fantasizes about doing bad things to them, to make them scream, beg, and burn, despite her normally less vicious behavior. Logs *TBA Pictures Category:DC Original Category:DC Hero Category:Gotham Category:DC Taken